Extreme Weight Loss

To lose 200 pounds, Jonathan Weaver relied on dieting, exercising, faith and ... Facebook.The Spartanburg minister didn’t have a personal trainer, and while he knew his wife, Summer, would be by his side every step of the way, he wanted more people to hold him accountable.

The Spartanburg minister didn’t have a personal trainer, and while he knew his wife, Summer, would be by his side every step of the way, he wanted more people to hold him accountable.

So, a few months before his transformation began, he made a Facebook page: Jonathan Weaver’s Weight Loss Journey.

“The Facebook page was a big deal,” Weaver said. He said he has been overweight his entire life. He has tried to start diets numerous times in the past, but he didn’t stick with them for very long.

“I was addicted to food,” he said. “Food was what I lived for.”

But when he created the Facebook page, he soon realized that he wouldn’t be able to quit dieting and exercising this time around. He didn’t have a choice but to keep at it.

The Facebook followers came in droves. But not all at once. The numbers started small, but as Weaver began to shrink — posting photos and statuses of his progress along the way — the supporters grew and grew.

“I used to just kind of post randomly, and then I posted one day that I had lost 70 pounds, and then after that a bunch of people started following me,” the 27-year-old said.

People, some of whom he didn’t even know, would start checking up on him through messages, he said. Hundreds of people messaged him wanting tips on how to lose weight.

When he lost 175 pounds, he posted a photo of him carrying another person on his back who weighed the equivalent.

“That’s what I used to carry around with me every day,” he said.

And then, when he lost 200 pounds, his Facebook status exclaimed: “I did it! 200 lbs. LOST IN 1 YEAR!! Thank y’all for all the support, encouragement and accountability! To God be the glory!”

The status received more than 180 “likes” and a large dose of congratulations.

Currently, the page has more than 500 followers — accountability partners, as Weaver calls them — but his journey isn’t over.

Recently, while working at his other job — selling cars at a business his father owns — he said a group of employees went to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Weaver stayed behind.

“Normally, I would have been the first in the car, the first to the buffet — and the last one to leave,” he quipped.

“It’s great I’ve lost a lot,” he said, seated on the couch in his home. A shiny metal bike stood across his living room — cycling recently became a hobby for Weaver. “But I’ve still got more to lose.”

As his Facebook page said, as of

Page 2 of 2 - Aug. 1: “My next goal is for me to lose 300 lbs! This means I’ve got 98 more lbs. to go!”

His goals, in addition to losing more weight, include being able to ride a roller coaster at Carowinds. He’s been too heavy since high school, he said. He wants to be able to shop at more stores — not just ones that sell larger clothes.

Importance of faith

Facebook wasn’t the only thing that kept him going.

“Faith was definitely a part of it,” said the pastor, who preaches at Momentum Church, a congregation he founded with his wife three years ago — only a few months after they got married.

“I don’t think you have to be a certain weight to live for God,” he said. “But it was hurting my relationship with God because I was finding satisfaction and fulfillment in food and not in a relationship with him. The food was a distraction keeping me from God.”

He quotes a passage of Scripture: “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.”

“He was saying if you want to get over your sin, do something drastic. That was my philosophy.”

Weaver, with determination from above, and through his computer screen, turned to the Take Shape for Life program, which is fueled by the Medifast weight-loss program.

According to the website, dieters choose five Medifast Meals each day, one every two to three hours, and one self-prepared meal. Because the meals are eaten frequently, dieters never get hungry and their metabolism stays revved, according to the website.

Weaver and his wife began the diet together. They also began working out three to four nights a week at a local fitness center.

He’s also encouraged other family members and friends to join the diet with him.

“My whole thing was having a plan. Have a plan and lay out what you want to do. Anyone can say they want to lose weight, but have a plan,” Weaver said. “And then, once you commit to it and have accountability, once you see the progress, it makes you want to keep going.”

Facebook certainly helped, too

When he is out riding his bike, or just out and about, people who have seen his Facebook page will often stop him and offer words of encouragement, congratulations or compliments.

One lady, who noticed his drastic weight loss, asked him if he had some kind of surgery.

“No, I didn’t have a gastric bypass,” he will say. “The only thing I bypass is